Payday 2 Is Free On Steam, For The Moment

Need to have a bit of fun and get away for the weekend from the stresses of everyday life and the overbearing notions of adulthood? Well, why not try robbing a bank? Or how about getting double crossed in a meth deal with a killer biker gang? How about crossing the mob or pilfering a heavily guarded safehouse stash? If any of that sounds like a relaxing good time to you, then you're probably going to enjoy the free giveaway for Overkill Software's FPS heist game, Payday 2.

Over on the Steam community page, Overkill Software announced that Payday 2 will be free for a limited time. The condition of the free game is the fact that Overkill hopes to give away a total of 5 million free copies or run the giveaway until June 21st rolls around, near the end of the month.

So, why the giveaway? Well it's part of Overkill's process to not only give back to the community but also consolidate all of the DLC into a single package. This is also in preparation for Payday VR, which is due out this summer for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

Recently, the developers announced that Payday 2's DLC would no longer be available for sale. It had a big blowout sale on the DLC recently where everyone could purchase all of the content for the game at a major discount. Once the DLC sale ended, the DLC was no longer available for purchase through the Steam client.

I'm sure a lot of gamers are now asking "Well, how do I get my hands on Payday 2 DLC?" Good question. Overkill announced that it's all bundled into the upcoming Payday 2: Ultimate Edition. This bundle contains all of the previously released DLC packs for the game, allowing players to experience everything the base game had to offer, along with everything that the additional expansion packs would offer.

This means if you missed out on things like the bomb heists, or the diamond heists, or the big bank heists, or the Alesso heist, you'll be able to partake in all of them now and upgrade your heisting abilities with your friends. This also means that additional packs, including licensed characters like Ron Perlman's biker character and Keanu Reeves' John Wick, will also make an appearance in the bundle pack.

While 5 million free copies may seem like a big target goal, news spreads fast and a lot of people who may have skipped out on the game since its release back in 2013 might be inclined to give it a try.

It wasn't all roses and daffodils in the Overkill camp, though. A while back it suffered from some fairly negative PR when the publisher forced the studio to include microtransactions into the first-person heist shooter. This made gamers quite incensed, because Overkill had previously promised that no microtransactions would be included in Payday 2.

Eventually, the developers were able to buy independence from the publisher and remove the microtransactions, making things right in the world once more. The good will from the community returned, and Overkill could then look forward to the future for upcoming projects and content. As a way to say thank you and to give back to the community, 5 million free copies of Payday 2 will be rolled out throughout June, so grab the game while you can and enjoy it before the event ends.